Tomorrow after years of good service I'm thinking of taking in my 2000P to be repaired - (tho worried about how much this may cost). I may have pushed a spring or something out of place when I decided to try and clean it, inside on the right. In any case the nozzle test is showing no black and the colors get paler and fewer with each cleaning, tho at first they were improving. This has never happened before, but I have never touched inside on the right before either. My first question is: Could the cause of the ink problem be my touching and moving something that I shouldn't have inside on the right, or is there no relation between these two things?

Second question: When you push the yellow button and the cartridge set-up moves to the left, one can see on the right under the place where the cartridges are when they are at rest, a rectangular sort of tray lying in a horizontal position. It seems to be about one and a quarter inches long and half an inch or so wide. The other day I noticed that it has NOTHING in it. No sponge, no nothing. IS THIS HOW IT SHOULD BE?. I can just see six little screw tops imbedded in the "tray" and nothing else. Could I have 'lost" a sponge or something? Can't see how?

And question 3: Last night I took out the black Epson cartridge (I've always used their brand) which the indicator shows is full, and shook it vigorously. No ink comes out. IS THIS NORMAL? I took it out because I was thinking that in spite of it showing full it may be no good because I started it two days ago but it has a March 2008 date on it. If the indicator shows full is this proof that the ink is flowable? If not will I have to try with an unexpired cartridge to get proof that this is just a no-good ink problem? But the colour is not working well either and I know that that cartridge is OK...

OH DEAR. This is getting complicated... I just hope that there is a kind and knowledgeable and patient person out there who will try and help. You just can't imagine! And thanks for reading this far.

Mira.

ps (Thank you Bob again - your suggestions re ink marks improved print-outs a lot before this new problem came up)